http://www.nolanchart.com/article6904.html
Confessions of an Ethnic Cleanser KARADZIC: JUSTICE DENIED A former officer of The Office of the Prosecutor in the Hague, ICTY, exposes how and why the UN is denying justice to war crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic. by James Luko (centrist) Thursday, September 24, 2009 The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Office of the Prosecutor (disclosure: I worked for the ICTY Prosecutor's Office for seven years and met Karadzic in Pale in 1996 while accompanying the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Elisabeth Rehn) was in the middle of an incredibly long, and by many accounts including mine, an incompetent prosecution of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, when the accused dropped dead in the ICTY's detention center of a heart attack. Now, with Radovan Karadzic, the Prosecution is out for revenge, as Milosevic, Karadzic and General Mladic were/are the "Big Three" war crime suspects that the ICTY Prosecution has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of public money investigating and prosecuting. The ongoing problem over the past few years has been first; Milosevic died on them, and I can reveal that some in the Prosecutor's Office were quite happy with that as they realized their preparation was poor, disorganized and generally incompetent. Second; they (ICTY and the Serbian Government) haven't been able to capture General Mladic, who is without a doubt, according to my previous interactions with the Serbian Ministry of Justice, closely guarded and protected by a dominant faction of the shadowy parallel government security forces whom even the Serbian government fears. Third; Karadzic (aka the amazing healer, Dr. Dragan David Dabic- his alias while in hiding) has been on the run since his indictment for war crimes, including genocide, by ICTY in 1996. Dr. Karadzic was the President of Republika Srpska (the Serbian controlled part of Bosnia) from 1992 until 1996, when, under pressure of the United States, he agreed to resign and depart from the public eye in return for "political" immunity. This public caveat at the time, did not include, any immunity from any future criminal prosecutions, although, Karadzic claims that the U.S. did make assurances of his criminal immunity. On this point, I would tend to believe his claim- as there is a fair amount of solid circumstantial evidence, aside of which I myself, was involved in an operation in cooperation with British Forces in Banja Luka Bosnia in 1997 which was on the verge of capturing Karadzic when in consultation with London the operation was canceled. (see a brief account of this incident covered by the UK Telegraph newspaper)[link edited for length] Hiding in Belgrade Serbia under the alias of Dr. Dabic, Karadzic was arrested last year and transferred to the Hague's (ICTY) custody. The trial is now set to begin, after numerous delays, October 19, 2009, and a few days ago the ICTY Chambers (the Court) asked the Prosecution to "trim" the 11 count indictment, in light of the previous trial of Milosevic which was a multi-year fiasco. The Prosecution has declined to "trim" the number of counts in the indictment, "claiming" a reduction in charges will prevent the case from encompassing the full scope of his [alleged] crimes. I do not believe this is a "sincere" answer to the Chambers, as its quite common to abridge trials in order to serve a larger justice of achieving some objectives rather than creating a massive, disorganized circus that completely violates the right of a speedy trial. The main point here is that there are two main reasons why now the Prosecution does not wish to abridge the indictment count. The first reason is almost a type of "revenge" for the inability to prosecute Milosevic, the first big fish, and the inability to capture and prosecute the other big fish, General Mladic. So, Karadzic is the one the Prosecution can "crucify" in place of the other two. The Prosecution needs to nail Karadzic to the cross on as many charges as possible, especially genocide in Srebrenica to justify its very existence. The primary purpose of the ICTY, its raison d'etre, is to prosecute those at the highest levels of responsibility in order to serve as an example to others around the world lest they repeat the same crimes thinking that as leaders of a sovereign nation they are untouchable. (In such concepts of command responsibility for crimes committed during the war in Bosnia , note the absence of indictments against Franjo Tudjman- former strongman leader of Croatia, now dead, and Alija Izetbegovic- former President of Bosnia, also now dead – this is the West's concept of "selective" justice). The second reason the Prosecution does not wish to reduce the charges is trial strategy, knowing in advance, and in my person opinion, a very weak prosecutorial structure (disorganized- inconsistent) as well as immense lack of professionalism in some aspects of the investigation, the Prosecution has created a gross inequality of arms, another substantial violation of judicial rights for the accused. This strategy, to compensate for the Prosecutors shortcomings mentioned above, is to "overwhelm" the accused with a massive case for which the meager resources of Karadzic (he is defending himself and has some assistance from various lawyers including the talented American lawyer Peter Robinson) cannot but hope to deal with the thousands of pages submitted and the number of witnesses the Prosecution will present. In such a precedent setting case, of monumental historical significance, it's incredulous how unequal the resources are, in budgets and manpower, it would be virtually impossible, guilty or not guilty, to professionally and competently defend on all counts. In my professional opinion, the indictments should be abridged to make a case which can be completed within a years time. As it is now, the accused's fundamental rights to a fair trial are being violated by a gross inequality of arms and lack of a speedy trial. A point to make clear, I worked sincerely on the efforts to investigate and prosecute Karadzic, and, if guilty due to chain of command responsibility and/or direct orders, I am the first to demand justice for the war crimes- extra-judicial killings, mass murder, expulsions, ethnic cleansing (although I disagree with the charge of genocide in Srebrenica- it was not genocide). However, as our core belief in working for the ICTY was and is "justice" it's a mockery of our efforts, a slap in our face, for the people in the Hague, who didn't even serve in the field taking the risks during and after the war as many of us did, to now prosecute and convict Karadzic using tactics which are major violations of UN, International and European laws, (right of speedy trial and equality of arms). Justice, can NOT be attained via unfair trials using illegal methods and at this time, this is what the UN ICTY Prosecution is doing, this is Justice Denied. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "serbia" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/serbia -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
